GREEN BAY - This was a year of winning in the greater Green Bay business community.

There was nary a dull moment in 2018. The big announcements started in January when one event complex became two and continued straight through this month's news that a global technology giant now owns a six-story office building downtown.

Properties have been sold, renovated, razed and rebuilt. New businesses have opened; old ones have closed. Builders stayed busy catching up on pent-up demand in the residential market while plenty of commercial projects dot Brown County's landscape.

Oh, and a Green Bay manufacturer is spending more than half a billion dollars to build a new mill that will take three years to finish. Couple that with projected job growth and future investments, and the Green Bay area not only had a good 2018, but is poised to reap the benefits for several more years.

Here's a look at 10 projects and developments that made 2018 a bonkers year and have helped position Green Bay for future benefits.

Green Bay Packaging's new mill

In a year of wins, the numbers on Green Bay Packaging Inc.'s investment in a new mill on the north side make it hard to start anywhere else: A $580 million total investment, three years of construction, 600 jobs retained, 200 jobs created, and hundreds of vendors supporting operations. And none of this mentions that the Kress family decided to build in Green Bay over other states and communities as a show of support for the workers and community it has called home since being founded in 1933.

Resch sells KI to employees

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Majority owner Dick Resch announced he sold his stake in the company. He will remain president and CEO.
Sarah Kloepping/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, Green Bay Press Gazette

Similar to Green Bay Packaging's commitment to Green Bay, Dick Resch could have sold his 71 percent stake in commercial furniture manufacturer KI to a competitor or a private equity group. Instead, on May 1, he informed the company's 2,000 employees, who already owned 29 percent of KI, that he was selling his family's stake to them.

Resch said employee ownership will help the company stay in Green Bay.

Remembering John Pagel, Harry Maier, Jim Rivett and Jerry Watson

The Green Bay area mourned the loss of several energetic, engaging leaders whose tireless efforts helped make the area a better place to live and work.

Dairy industry leader and Cannery Public Market founder John Pagel's death in February shocked close-knit Kewaunee County. Khrome founder and tireless arts supporter Jim Rivett's death in August sent similar shocks through Green Bay.

Green Bay decided to name a meeting room after Harry Maier after the 90-year-old former Press-Gazette editor and longtime Redevelopment Authority chairman died in April. And Stadium View owner Jerry Watson continued to raise the bar for Lambeau Field-area bars from the moment he opened in 1992 up until he passed away in November.

Foxconn sold on Green Bay

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The Watermark project, foreground, in 2011 during the conversion of the former Younkers building to office and retail space, a parking garage, the Children's Museum and Hagemeister Park restaurant.(Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Foxconn's announcement in late June that it selected Green Bay for its first major investment in the state outside southeast Wisconsin was kept so quiet city and business leaders were surprised by it. The company completed its purchase of the former Younkers building downtown in early December for $9 million and is in the process of hiring contractors to renovate a floor of the six-story building into an innovation center. Mayor Jim Schmitt has said the project is a positive for Green Bay that creates technology jobs even as the company's plans for a mega-factory in Mount Pleasant change.

Hotel Northland

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Plastic-wrapped furniture is in place in the Hotel Northland's lobby. The hotel will not welcome guests in 2018, but one of its restaurants will open to the public Dec. 20.(Photo: Jeff Bollier/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

The Hotel Northland revival effort couldn't have had a worse 2017 than it did: Unpaid bills, an ownership squabble, contractors walking off the job and receivership. But the squabbles, in-fighting and court battles laid the groundwork for 2018 that saw work resume, a new owner take over and the 160-room luxury hotel hosting its first community event, a Green Bay Rotary Club annual get-together, ahead of an early 2019 grand opening.

Imperial relocates downtown

Imperial Supply moved its headquarters and 375 employees into downtown Green Bay with its purchase and renovation of the Feld Building, 300 N. Madison St.(Photo: Jim Matthews/USA TODAY NETWORK-W)

Foxconn, Green Bay Packaging and the Hotel Northland drew a lot of attention in 2018, but they were not the only major expansions in downtown Green Bay. Imperial Supplies, distributor of trucking fleet maintenance equipment, supplies and tools, needed space for 400 employees and as many as 200 more the company expects to create in coming years. It found it in the Feld Building, 300 N. Madison St. The company invested more than $14 million to acquire, renovate and consolidate its operations in the downtown building.

Leadership Transitions

Bellin Health CEO George Kerwin will retire at the end of September, ending his 47-year career with the hospital to an end. COO Chris Woleske takes over.
Jeff Bollier, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Bellin Health and Nsight Telservices have weathered recent industry upheavals thanks to steady, long-term leadership that maintained commitments to local customers and employees.

The leaders of both organizations for decades, George Kerwin at Bellin and Pat Riordan at Nsight, announced this year that the time was right to pass the torch to the next generation of local leaders. Mark Naze has taken over as CEO at Nsight while Chris Woleske has succeeded Kerwin at Bellin.

Shipyard Split

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Breakthrough announced plans Monday to build a 40,000-square-foot headquarters building in the Shipyard area.
Jeff Bollier, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The only thing better than one recreation complex? Two recreation complexes, of course. The recriminations started almost as soon as Big Top Events, owner of the Green Bay Booyah, announced it would move to Ashwaubenon after four years of working with Green Bay officials couldn't produce a new stadium plan. Capital Credit Union Park, as the stadium will be called, is expected to be ready for the Booyah and a minor league soccer team to begin play in 2019.

Green Bay quickly re-tooled its plans for the Shipyard redevelopment, along Broadway just north of the Mason Street bridge, and focused on concerts, community sports and riverfront recreation. The development area got a much-needed boost when Breakthrough announced its new headquarters would anchor The Shipyard.

STEM, innovation investments

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A rendering of the proposed STEM Innovation Center that Brown County, UW-Green Bay and the state plan to jointly fund. The building will house the newly-named Richard J. Resch School of Engineering.(Photo: Jeff Bollier/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

State, regional and local officials celebrated a win, decades in the making, this year when the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay received the go-ahead to establish the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering. The engineering school is part of a larger investment the university, Brown County and state are making in a STEM Innovation Center and Phoenix Innovation Park on the UWGB campus.

On the other side of greater Green Bay, the Packers and Microsoft moved their partnership in TitletownTech forward with the announcement Craig Dickman would serve as the managing director of the innovation hub in Ashwaubenon.